さ夜更けて富士の高嶺に澄む月は
煙ばかりや曇りなるべき
煙ばかりや曇りなるべき
- Roma-ji
-
Sayo fukete Fuji no takane ni sumu tsuki wa keburi bakari ya kumori narubeki
- English Translation
-
As night grows deep
the moon so clear above
the lofty peak of Fuji,
could its only cloud perhaps
be the smoke that rises there?
- Meaning
- For the moon shining clear above the lofty peak of Fuji in the depths of the night, could the smoke rising from the mountain be its only cloud?
- Commentary
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Book Four Autumn Poems I 283
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed by the Retired Emperor as a moon poem when he called for hundred-poem sequences"
Like the preceding poem, this was composed on "the moon" for the hundred-poem sequences called for by Retired Emperor Sutoku. For the moon shining clear above the lofty peak of Fuji late at night, in a sky without a single cloud, the only thing that could cloud it is the smoke rising from the mountain. Making use of the singular feature of Fuji's smoke, the poem sets off the perfect clarity of a moon that has nothing else to dim it.
The author, "the Ōimikado Minister of the Right," is Fujiwara no Kinyoshi, son of Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Saneyoshi, who rose to Minister of the Right. He was called by this name from his residence at Ōimikado and was one of the poets of Retired Emperor Sutoku's Kyūan Hundred-Poem Sequence.
In those days Mount Fuji was sung of as a mountain that sent up smoke. Following 275 and 276 of this book, it sings of the moon above a high peak.
First line, "sayo fukete": "sa" is a prefix: "as the night grows late."
Second line, "Fuji no takane ni": "above the high peak of Fuji." Poems 275 and 276 of this book also speak of "takane."
Third line, "sumu tsuki wa": "for the moon shining clear."
Fourth line, "keburi bakari ya": "keburi" is the smoke rising from Mount Fuji and "bakari" limits; the interrogative "ya" links with "beki" in the last line.
Fifth line, "kumori narubeki": "beki," the attributive of the conjectural "beshi," closes with "ya," showing a moon so clear that nothing but the smoke could cloud it.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kinyoshi
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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Tama yosuru urawa no kaze ni sora harete hikari o kawasu aki no yo no tsuki
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Ishibashiru mizu no shiratama kazu miete Kiyotakigawa ni sumeru tsukikage